International Construction Equipment, Inc.

In 1974, International Construction Equipment, Inc. (ICE®) opened its doors and began to develop and manufacture market advanced pile driving equipment and lead systems for the deep foundation industry. As the ICE® family of products and team expanded, so did the necessity to expand operations globally. 
"Over the past 45 years, we have opened operations, new companies and created partnerships all over the globe while still keeping our innovative engineering and manufacturing inside of Matthews, N.C.," said Kurt Seufert, the company's CFO. "As a leader in the deep foundation industry, the ICE® family is proud to still be engineering, machining and manufacturing pile driving and drilling equipment in the USA and shipping to our global partners in all parts of the world." 
The ICE® team is also appreciative and humbled by its partners, distributors, branches and suppliers for the outstanding job and service they offer to the company's clients. 
"Every project presents our clients with its own unique job challenges. But our ICE® team is wired to grow and transition with new ideas to better help our clients manage all types of driving and drilling conditions," said Christian Cunningham, ICE® CEO. "The ICE® family difference is really the ability to overcome the toughest driving and drilling with experience, resources and talent from our highly tenured and knowledgeable field resources teams. Including myself, our team members average tenure of 20-plus years, making us very well versed in foundation equipment needs." 
As times change and job requirements become increasingly complex, ICE® has been there in the forefront of innovation by providing guidance not only to the client but also to the industry by expanding our team with resident experts, reviewing trends and moving with the times.
Manufacturer direct difference 
"ICE® is different from many partners in the equipment industry as we are the original USA manufacturer, providing direct from factory sales, a full-service team and manufacturer setup assistance," said Kevin Kane, the sales manager at ICE®. "But we don't stop there we also pile on with convenient, regionally located rental fleets and services." 
Kane is an advocate for comprehensive education of global contractors in the art and science of pile driving equipment. He additionally serves on the PDCA Education Committee to assist the North American pile driving industry.
"It has taken many years, many friends and partners and a loyal team (and not so loyal) to become the world's most recognizable, sought after and desired equipment manufacturer," said ICE®'s marketing director, Pollyanna Cunningham. "It is the innovation and conservative direction our founders have taken that enabled ICE® to become a first-class company in the global equipment manufacturing market while continuing to be rooted as a family-owned, U.S. company. We will always be the original ICE®." 
Equipment just released
Each year, ICE® showcases to the industry new equipment that fits a majority of pile driving and drilling equipment needs and services. Specific to the pile driving market, between 2017 and 2019, ICE® released new, technologically advanced attachments, including larger excavator-mounted vibratory hammers working from the bucket circuits of an existing excavator, to a cutting-edge piling and drilling mast, which is a more substantial design than what is currently on the market. 
Of course, there is the large hammer market a driller's best friend and ICE® rose to the challenge with a family of large vibratory hammers: the 110C, 125C, 130C and North America's largest, the ICE® 200C. 
"ICE® released new versions of double-clamping solutions to best partner with the steel sheeting and rental industry to help ensure better longevity of the sheets," said Mike Gregory, ICE® regional sales and branch manager. Gregory has spent the past eight months working with the steel sheeting community to develop custom clamping systems for steel sheets.
With their ears to the ground, ICE® heard concerns from crane rental partners and, as a response, in 2019 introduced a full line of crane-suspended vibration dampeners that meets all ASTM requirements. This certification makes the ICE® Dampening™ solution a one-of-a-kind unrivaled component in boom shake technology. 
"Innovation from our team didn't stop there," said Mike Douglas, a senior engineer at ICE®. He says that ICE® Zero Resonance™ hammers are continually evolving from dialing in frequency to no shake at start and shutdown improvements that were developed through ICE®'s test labs, team think-tanks and feedback from its loyal clients.
"We take client input seriously," said Douglas. "We build many custom designs to accommodate our client's end goals with great success. Most of the projects across ICE® engineering team's desks have client detail built into them. It makes every day an exciting adventure just knowing how in-tune our engineering team is with the pile driving industry." 
Douglas is not only a senior team member at ICE®, he is a true advocate of educating young engineers on pile driving and hydraulics, as evidenced by all the work he does with UNC and other universities.
New awareness in pile driving
For many years, noise and vibration in the pile driving industry have been topics of concern to other construction segments and the general public, but pile driving contractors and engineering firms can alleviate those concerns with case studies and statistics to show that noise and vibration are not the large problems that they're touted to be. Often, solutions like bubble curtains or better explaining impact hammers are all it takes to help ease some concern.
ICE® is continually working on collecting data that will help it to reduce the vibration footprint in the soils and surrounding structures through new equipment solutions. Additionally, the company partners with technical groups like PDCA, ADSC, AEM and DFI in efforts to collect, review and publish data important to pile driving contractors and engineering firms. Today, ICE® is continuing to help work on a noise and vibration data resource by participating with DFI's Driven Pile Committee and the PDCA Education and Technical Committees. 
"This is a new and very large project. It will take everyone to make this happen," said Pollyanna Cunningham, current chair of both the PDCA Communications Committee and DFI's Driven Pile Committee. 
Industry participation
ICE® will continue to provide a full spectrum of high-performance equipment and seasoned service professionals to enable its customers to be versatile and productive. ICE® handles both sales and rental agreements for its products to boost efficiency and make clients more competitive in today's market. 
The ICE® difference is not limited to its family roots, team spirit and manufacturing facilities in the USA. 
"The ICE® difference is the amount of time and attention our engineering, sales and marketing and manufacturing teams give back to the pile driving and drilling industries through associations," said Christian Cunningham. "Every day, ICE® spends time helping with, on average, three or more projects for the greater good of the industry. 
"We feel very strongly that as we actively volunteer, the industry will thrive. The more teams and companies suppliers, engineers, contractors, etc. that participate, the stronger our industry will become. A stronger, more joint effort in our industry is a commendable reason to actively go the extra mile we all benefit."

Posted in PileDriver Magazine. Tagged as Edition 3, 2019.

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